Half a million down, half a million to go. After almost four months of use on public roads across the U.S, 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles have logged a cumulative 500,000 miles - or an average of 5000 miles each.
As part of GM's Project Driveway program, the hydrogen-powered SUVs have been loaned to politicians, celebrities, and actual customers for real-world feedback. GM claims more than 3400 people have driven a fuel cell Equinox; our own Joe Lorio spent a few weeks with one back in July.
Seeing as Project Driveway aims to give engineers information on how fuel cell vehicles perform in actual driving environment, how are the Equinoxes holding up? "Very well," said Marybeth Stanek, GM's director of fuel cell commercialization. "The amount of data we've collected over the past year is very valuable to us, and gives us insight into this important automotive technology."
Participants in Project Driveway often have an Equinox for two months, allowing the fuel cell vehicles to rotate through a larger pool of drivers. At this rate, we'd expect the fleet to reach more people (and log many more miles) before Project Driveway ends in December 2010.